The Museum of Modern Art announced Guillermo del Toro: Crafting Pinocchio, an exhibition dedicated to the craft and process behind the famous filmmaker’s first stop-motion animated film.
On view on the second floor of the Paul J. Sachs Galleries and the Debra and Leon Black Family Film Center from December 11, 2022 through April 15, 2023, the exhibit will offer visitors a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process behind del Toro’s latest film, Guillermo del Toroby Pinocchio (2022). In addition to gallery presentations, MoMA will screen Guillermo del Toro‘s Pinocchio from December 22 to 29; present a comprehensive retrospective of del Toro’s films in December 2022 and January 2023; and host a Carte Blanche series curated by the director in 2023, all at the Roy and Niuta Titus theatres. Guillermo del Toro: Crafting Pinocchio is curated by Ron Magliozzi, Curator, and Brittany Shaw, Curatorial Assistant, with Kyla Gordon, Research Assistant, Department of Film.
“With Guillermo del Toro‘s Pinocchio, we had the unique opportunity to organize an exhibition during the active production of a feature film by one of the most important filmmakers of this generation,” says curator Ron Magliozzi. “The chance to observe firsthand how Guillermo and fellow director Mark Gustafson engaged with the artisans and artists under their direction inspired our selection and installation of the works on display.”
The second-floor display will include five complete working sets and four large sets, as well as puppets and puppets, models, sculptural molds, drawings, development materials, time-lapse and motion-test videos and movie props. In the gallery space of the Black Family Film Center, visitors will experience a new series of immersive videos that explore themes frequently seen in del Toro’s films; a comprehensive selection of studio and alternative art posters; and a specially created, site-specific soundscape. The exhibit will show how teams of professionals in a remarkable range of mediums worked collaboratively in Portland, Oregon, and Guadalajara, Mexico, to create the film.
The exhibition will open with classic and contemporary editions of Carlo CollodiThe Adventures of Pinocchio (1883) from around the world, including the 2002 edition illustrated by Gris Grimly, which inspired filmmakers, to orient visitors to the original story and show the diversity of approaches taken by illustrators to visualize the ‘story.
Throughout the exhibit, visitors will learn about the different phases of stop-motion animation filmmaking, from the development of the look to the years-long production process. Crafting Pinocchio will feature physical pieces from the production as well as digital color testing, topographical surveys, state-of-the-art video technology and archival photography that brought del Toro’s reimagined classic to life.
Guillermo del Toro: Crafting Pinocchio is the Museum’s fourth major exhibition dedicated to the art of cinematic animation since 2005, following Pixar: 20 Years of Animation (2005-06), Tim Burton (2009), and Wharf Brothers: On deciphering the pharmacist’s prescription for lip-reading puppets (2012). Del Toro’s work has appeared in several Museum exhibitions, beginning in 1994, when his first film, Cronos (1993), was selected for the annual New Directors/New Films festival. Since then, the Museum has screened The Shape of Water (2017) as part of The Contenders 2017 and Nightmare Alley (2021) as part of The Contenders 2021.
A complete program of screenings for the film programs that will accompany Guillermo del Toro: The manufacture of Pinocchio will be announced in the fall of 2022.
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